This invention relates to a tool for separating the conductors of an electrical cable and, more particularly, to such a tool have staggered cutting blades and an element for ejecting the separated cable members.
Electrical cable composed of three conducting elements, enclosed within insulating material, is often utilized in the wiring of buildings and similar structures for providing power for lighting, heating, and other purposes. Access to the electric power carried by such cables is had through sockets (receptacles) and switches being customarily installed in the walls of the buildings. Sockets and switches which make electrical contact with the individual conductors of the cable are now commercially available as self-contained devices. Once the three wires of the cable have been separated, such self-contained sockets and switches can be rapidly attached to the cable, thereby reducing the time required for installation of electric wiring as compared with the time for terminating the usual wiring devices.
A problem arises in that a contributing factor in the installation time of the electric wiring is the time spent in preparing the cable for the sockets and switches. The preparation involves the separation of the wires without damaging either the electrical insulation around the line conductor wires (for wiring receptacles) or any of the conductor wires themselves.
Tools have been developed to facilitate the process of separating the wires, but generally have not had as facile an operation as might be desired. For example, a non-uniform operating force is required during the cutting stroke, and, after the cutting stroke, the wires need be extracted manually from sharp blades of the tools. The lack of uniform exertion in the use of such tools, as well as the danger of personal injury attendant the manual manipulation of wire adjacent the sharp edges, necessitates a careful and time consuming usage of the tool, and also discourages the use of such tools.
One such tool, described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,846,894, has multiple parts which are pivotally connected at several places. Although the tool can function for its intended purpose, its cutting blades are dangerously exposed and it is cumbersome to handle and awkward to operate because the various parts tend to "flop" about. In addition, during operation of this tool, the operator experiences a continuous and substantial resistence to cutting so he must increase the force he exerts as he completes the slicing operation.
Another such tool is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,998. Although this tool functions adequately, it is adapted to spread the cable conductors, after the slicing operation, in two planes, thereby making it awkward to couple to a wiring device. In addition, when operating the tool, the force which must be exerted is not uniform over the entire cutting stroke and, in fact, requires a relatively large exertion at at least the end of the cutting stroke.
An alternative procedure, utilized long before the advent of such tools, is to separate the wires manually with the aid of a knife. Such a procedure is hazardous to the electrical cable in that insulation covering the individual wires, or the wires themselves, may be inadvertently cut, and the procedure is hazardous to persons performing the wire separation in that a knife may slip, particularly in a cold environment wherein the person may be wearing gloves. In spite of the long felt need for a tool to adequately simplify the wire separation procedure, it appears that heretofore, no such tool has been available.